I'll have an order of audio to go, please

After several days of searching, I came across this set of portable speakers at Best Buy on sale. Apparently black seels faster than white, as these white speakers were $23.99 and the black version was selling at $34.99. They are exactly the same though, so I couldn't see paying extra just to get black and went with the white instead. I'll divide this review into two areas: usage and sound quality.


Usage-

These speakers are designed for use with any device that has an audio output jack (preferably a 3.5mm jack, but with the right adapter, these can work with any device). You simply connect your device, turn on the device and the speakers, and you're ready to go.

There are three things that stand out for me then with this specific set of speakers. First, there is a volume control on the speakers themselves. A lot of portable speakers have no volume control, relying on the device's own volume control. It can be handy though to have a volume control on the speaker though, depending on what device you are using and where it is in relation to the speakers.

Second, these are powered speakers, so you have to either be within range of an electrical outlet (for the AC adapter) or have batteries handy (3 AAA batteries). I've been using only the AC adapter, but according to Sony, these speakers will run for up to 25 hours on one set of AAA batteries. From past experience with other powered speakers, I've found rechargeables to be the best option if you are going to use batteries regularly, and expect to get closer to 10-15 hours per charge (assuming you are listening to the speakers on the higher end of the volume than the lower end).

Third, these speakers are small, and can fit together nicely to same some space if you are packing them around. That is really great if you do a lot of travel; you don't have to have bulky speakers in your bag. Unfortunately, the AC adapter throws the portability benefits out of the window, as it isn't collapseble and is nearly as big as one of the speakers.

The cables are a good length. The cable connecting the speakers together is probably two feet long and the cable running from the main speaker (the one that the AC adapter runs into, the batteries would be installed in, and the volume control is located on) to your device is another two feet long or so. That makes it pretty easy to get things spaced out, but does lead to some cable clutter if you don't need that much cable. Some cable management options then would have been useful.

Speaking of cables, one thing that I find a little annoying is that the speaker cables run into the bottom center of the speakers, so for the speakers to sit up properly, the cables have to twist and come out from underneath one of the sides of the bottoms of the speakers. That has led to me setting the speakers up and then one of them falling over because it was sitting on top of a speaker cable.

Final verdict- Easy to setup and use, although the cables are a bit of a pain. Grade: B+


Sound Quality-

This is an interesting area. Let me start by saying that what I was primarily looking for was speakers that had adequate sound volume to be heard in loud areas (busy airport terminals, in the shower, outdoors with lots of crowd noise). These speakers provide that, but at those higher volumes, the sound quality does begin to suffer. Fortunately, most of the time I don't use them for music, so I don't run into issues with sound quality as often as you would suspect. These speakers are easily loud enough for me to hear podcasts/ spoken word while in the shower with the speakers about five feet away.

As far as sound quality, I did mentiont that the quality decreases as the volume increases. What it sounds like is that at louder volumes, the highs drop out and the mids and lows start to mingle, so you get a lot of deep-sounding audio, but with less clarity. At more middle of the road volume levels, audio is more than adequate though; nothing is too deep or too high, but you get enough response across the board that you can still listen enjoyably.

Final verdict- the sound quality it better than other portable speakers that I have used, and being powered gives them the extra oomph to cut through background sound. They almost sound like mid-tier headphones, except not on your head. Grade: B+


Overall verdict-

They cover the bases that I needed (portable, loud, small enough to pack around) and weren't as expensive as some of the other options I saw at the stores (the next option up was about $59, and everything after that was too big and bulky to easily carry around). You can find cheaper, unpowered speakers for $10 or less, but if you want something that can be heard in a crowd, I would go ahead and pay the extra cash for these speakers.

Final grade: B+